Tuesday, December 26, 2006

R.O.D. Read or Dream, v.1

Story by Hideyuki Kurata, Art by Ran AyanagaPublished in the US by Viz Manga

Slugline: For a detective agency, there sure is not much detecting going on here.

I am just in the mood for revealing my weaknesses lately, and this time I will admit that I have a weakness for reading. As in, whatever promotes it, is good for it and so on, I am usually in favor of. Thus I am fond of the original R.O.D. anime, though I do believe that the first episode of it was the best.

I understand that this series is supposed to be related to the first one in some way, but only the barest sketches of it are apparent here. Sure, in the first story they use the ability to control paper, but then for the rest of the book, their abilities are completely immaterial. There are the standard three females: the hard nosed one, the friendly one, and the distracted, abstract one. Though I do appreciate some of the funny bits about book storage (which reminds me I need to get another bookshelf for my manga), but this is really not a funny book. The book is rated for older teens, but I really do not see why -- maybe something happens in later volumes -- because this volume, with its short simple stories, would make a decent tweener book.

Maybe this is intended for other audiences, and if I read more volumes things would be different. But as of this first volume, this is merely a slightly cliche story about three sisters who like to read, and that love of reading gets them involved in strange adventures (ghosts, aliens). The stories are competently executed and clearly drawn, but neither do they strike me as especially well done or original.

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We post reviews of all kinds of manga - shojo, shonen, yaoi, manhwa (Korean), OEL (original English language), and hey, pass the Chinese too if you've got any - and we're a tough audience because we've been fans of manga and anime for over 15 years.

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